


Reunion

by Arkio



Category: BNA: Brand New Animal (Anime)
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Happy Ending, Gen, Guilt, Michiru is a hopeless workaholic, Platonic Relationships, Post-Canon, Self-Hatred, Shirou is more done with everything than usual, Workaholism, and Nazuna is made of friend(ish), will add tags as needed
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-05
Updated: 2020-08-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 20:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25731166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkio/pseuds/Arkio
Summary: In the months following the outbreak of the Nyrvasil syndrome, the city rebuilt at a record pace. After a while, however, Michiru and Nazuna went their separate ways.The former became an advisor to the mayor of Animacity, Barbara Rose, submerging herself in her new work and personal mission of helping integrate humans into Animacity. The latter focused on her budding idol career, taking tours across Japan as she tried to raise awareness for the toleration of Beastmen.But now, with Michiru's first official project - visas for humans coming to visit Animacity - a new crisis emerges; one that she can't hide away from behind her work. Namely, deciding whetever or not to face her parents, or rather, if she even can.
Relationships: Hiwatashi Nazuna & Kagemori Michiru, Kagemori Michiru & Ogami Shirou
Comments: 4
Kudos: 80





	Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to Flintlocke, who beta-read the chapter for me. You're a swell fella.

Michiru stared at the paper in front of her.

Then at her pen.

Again at the paper.

Then at one of the crumpled paper balls that littered her office/study.

She groaned as she crossed her arms on the desk and dropped her head into them, her ears drooping as she did so. “I'm hopeless…”

In the year following the outbreak of the Nyrvasil Syndrome, and after Animacity managed to recover and rebuild, the Mayor slowly began to open it up to the outside world and, of course, humans.

At first, it was relatively small things, like Nazuna's idol career and the short tours she sometimes undertook and access to the internet of the outside world becoming an official thing rather than solely the territory of the black market, even if it was still limited in several ways.

That, of course, led to human media becoming more and more common within Animacity as a method to get the beastmen within desensitized to humans before any would actually arrive in the city proper.

Of course, that led to her and Nazuna being called into her office more and more often, to give advice on humans, their culture, habits - the entire human world, basically. It was sometimes hilarious, other times boring and once outright embarrassing ( _she knew that the Mayor was just messing with them, but she just couldn't hear the word Spring anymore without her face going red and then some_ ).

That somehow led to Michiru becoming an advisor to Barbara, at least when it came to humans and integrating them into Animacity. Well, after she got her GED, anyway.

She really should have thought it through more when she took the job, because did it _eat_ into her free time like nothing else, especially when combined with the investigations she still helped out Shirou with every now and then and all the online studying and reading she had to do to not be completely and hopelessly lost in the world of bureaucracy and the proper basketball league she was trying to set up and organize while making sure _some_ lovable idiot or another didn't turn it into a death sport when she wasn't looking.

Like, _come on_ , she now had a paycheck fat enough to get a flat of her own in the Beastman Co-op building last month and still have enough money left over to fully furnish it and make it through to the end of the month, but these days she was happy enough when she got to have enough free time to complain to Nazuna about not having any free time.

Not that she had any problems with all the work, having to sometimes get up way-too-early in the morning to get things done notwithstanding. Really, helping out Animacity and all the beastmen living in it was quite fulfilling, and she took surprisingly well to bureaucratic and legal jargon.

Of course, that led her to her current problem, namely the fact that Animacity was finally entering the final stages of opening up to humans. Emphasis on _entering_ and _final_ , which meant her first official project, which meant visas, which meant setting that up with the Japanese government, which meant _meetings_ ( _bleh_ ), which meant having to draw up the damn documents, which led to having to set up the registration site, which led to her having to review the information of _every single person_ who registered, and then she was called to the Mayor's office alongside Nazuna this morning, which wasn't really all that good for her blood pressure because at the time she thought some politician or another threw a hissy fit and she'd have to do it all _again_ -

But, as it turned out, the Mayor was _just_ presenting them with the already reviewed, verified and printed visas for their families, and, since their ( _human_ ) families were a topic that Michiru had avoided, she wanted to make sure that she and Nazuna were alright with them coming.

Apparently, Barbara finished reviewing the remaining ones as well and sorted out which ones would actually get to come into the city proper, since there was a limit on that. ( _Michiru was just wondering_ why oh why _had no one made her aware of this months ago, despite the fact that it was kind of obvious when you actually stopped and thought about it for literally ten seconds_ )

And all of that led her to her current predicament, namely trying to decide whether or not she should send the visas to her parents for the past two hours, and what to write on the letter she would be sending along with them because she hadn't really interacted with them in any way, shape or form in, oh, over a year? ( _the goodbye letter, half of it stained by tears, didn't count_ )

With a huff, she lifted herself off the desk and stood up, feet on uncovered wooden boards ( _she needs to get a rug_ ). “Maybe I should just ask Shirou-san. He's had some pretty good advice to give lately, even if he's been so grumpy.”

* * *

Shirou glared at the screen of his laptop, reading the latest police report that had been forwarded to him. It was mostly sightings of Flip's Family operating throughout Animacity, even in areas that weren't strictly under their control, the local crime bosses mostly avoiding or even outright cooperating to avoid being crushed.

 _Looks like the news of visas for humans coming to Animacity reached him._ Shirou wasn't quite sure how that happened, exactly, Barbara leading a rather tight ship with a loyal crew, so to speak, so a mole was unlikely. He'd have to investigate more closely the next time he visited the town hall.

Although that was the least of his worries right now, seeing as Guiliano was frothing at the mouth and whipping the Family into action was causing chaos throughout the outer districts of the city.

Not all gangs chose to bow their heads, attempting to drive the Family out of their territories and businesses instead.

They didn't tend to last long, though that changed very little about the fact that they were _causing damage to Animacity, and he_ wouldn't _let that stand_. Just yesterday he had to call in arrests on seven separate occasions, and he had a feeling that it was only going to get worse if they didn't pacify the Family before it reached that point.

… On the other hand, it wasn't as if he couldn't understand Guiliano, seeing as the idea of letting humans into the city was enough to ruin his mood on any given day, despite his newfound determination to at least try to understand them and the fact that, ultimately, not trying to integrate beastmen and humans wouldn't have any good long-term consequences for Animacity; if not the beastmen as a whole.

It was then that knocking resounded from the hallway, soon followed by the creaking of the door's hinges as it opened. He sighed, moving his gaze from the laptop and towards the newcomer, even though there were only two people in the entire city who would enter without announcing themselves beforehand.

“Good morning, Shirou-san!” The somehow ever-cheerful voice of Michiru Kagemori greeted him, despite the redness of her eyes that indicated that she stayed up late again, working on who even knows what legal bullshit at this point.

Ever since Michiru got hired by the Mayor as an advisor, she basically became a one-woman department, at least when it came to adjusting the city so that… humans, could safely live in it with the beastmen. Even if it meant that she hadn't heard of nor seen proper sleep in over a month - if not _two_ \- by this point, and she stubbornly ignored any attempts made by others to get her to slow down.

Really, who knew that she'd turn out to be such a workaholic? ( _then again, looking back, maybe it wasn't_ that _surprising_ )

“What do you want, you troublesome tanuki,” he said, going straight to the point.

In response, Michiru's smile fell off her face for a moment before it reasserted itself, but she became more… subdued in posture nonetheless, which immediately raised some red flags in his head, because he could count the number of times Michiru looked so unsure of herself on one paw.

“Do you ever, just, think about your family…?” She looked about as half as uncomfortable with asking the question as he was with having it presented to him, _which was quite the fucking achievement_.

Shirou rubbed the bridge of his nose as he tried to dispel the… _memories_ ( _trying to cover his nose to not have to smell the_ bloodbloodblood _only to smear it all over his snout with his paws-_ ).

“Why are you asking me that?” The words came out harsher than intended, but _fuck_ this wasn't a topic he was comfortable discussing with anyone.

At some point, Michiru's smile had completely slipped off her face and she further curled up against herself. “It's just that… you know, the visas I mentioned having to prepare, I think last week? Yeah, last week sounds right…” she trailed off, stalling for time as she absentmindedly rubbed her left arm with her right, “Anyway, the Mayor basically did my job for me, which she can apparently do and is kind of obvious when you think about it but it still would have been nice if she actually _told_ me about it earlier and-”

“Get to the point,” he interrupted her when she began to ramble, which, while he would usually consider somewhat endearing, he wasn't really in the mood for an unnecessarily prolonged conversation right now.

Michiru shot him a quick glare without any real malice behind it before she spoke again. “... The Mayor got the visas for my parents and Nazuna's, but… I'm not sure if I even want them to come, I mean, what would I even say to them and I haven't even written to them or anything for over a year even though I could and they probably think I'm a bad daughter and don't want to _even see me ever again anyway and I_ -” She choked back a sob as she wiped away the tears that began to roll down her cheeks, shoulders trembling as she did so.

Something in Shirou's chest constricted at the sight and he didn't know what to do, because being a thousand-year-old pseudo deity didn't exactly prepare him to deal with emotional, workaholic teenagers.

Except, of course, he somehow came to _care_ about the teenager in question, so he lifted his laptop off his lap and put it on his desk, stood up and walked over to Michiru and gave her a hug.

He isn't used to giving hugs, so it's awkward and he doesn't know how tight it should be so it's fairly loose, and when Michiru hugs him back and puts her face on his shoulder he freezes up but _god damn it_ she's not sobbing or shaking as much so it's worth it.

It took her a while to completely calm down and by that point, he feels the wet shirt on his shoulder, but he doesn't mind as much as he thought he would. “This is stupid,” she says after a while, “I thought I was already over this…”

Shirou doesn't know what she's talking about, and his instinct was telling him that even if he did, he wouldn't be of much help.

He also has that whole mess with Giuliano's family to sort out in less than two weeks, even if the actual arrival date was a month from now, because taking out the biggest criminal fish in Animacity would get the other ones to fight over it like a pack of starving hyenas, so he doesn't really have the time to figure it out.

That leaves him with only one option in regards to actually helping Michiru out, namely finding someone else to do it for him because, as previously stated, he is horribly under-equipped for this.

“Michiru,” he began, trying to sound as gentle as he could manage,” I am not exactly the best person to talk about this.” As he spoke he found himself putting his hand on her shoulder, a little unsure of why he was doing it exactly, but it felt strangely, right, for the situation. “Why don't you talk about this with Nazuna?”

She looked at him for a moment with her red, puffy eyes before nodding. “You're right, I should… Thanks, Shirou-san!” And just like that, the optimistic energy she always seems to carry with her wherever she goes returned.

Shirou stared at the door for a while after she left before returning back to his spot on the chair.

Afterwards, he took a moment to ponder the sheer irony of working hard on taking out one of Animacity's largest problems… for the sake of _humans_.

One disgruntled grunt later, and he was back to work.

* * *

In recent months, Nazuna got to see and talk with Michiru less and less, and that made her a little sad. She knew that once Michiru finished her GED ( _and don't ask her about how she managed to cram two years of schoolwork into ten months; she still doesn't know that_ ) she would be hired by mayor Barbara as an advisor, considering how often she used to call on both of them for advice.

Well, more so Michiru then her, seeing as she was getting busier and busier with her idol career so Michiru had to pick up the slack, so to speak.

Michiru, being Michiru, tried to be as helpful as she could have possibly been in the given situation and decided to read up a bit on laws and such in between the, at the time, fairly casual studying. Eventually, she asked the mayor if she could be hired officially, if Nazuna remembered correctly and it wasn't the other way around, only to be shut down because, well, she didn't really even finish high school.

That led to Michiru not so much as going down the rabbit hole of workaholism as outright dive-bombing into it, leading to the previously mentioned miracle of managing to get her GED in ten months.

So, when she got a call from Michiru a few hours after they were called into the mayor's office about wanting to meet up, well, she got a little excited. Still was, to be honest.

Currently, she was waiting for Michiru in front of the Beast Co-op building, comfortable in her human form.

Soon enough, the tanuki was walking out of the building and waving her hand at her in greeting. “Hey, Nazuna!” She sounded as cheerful as ever, but there was, something, missing, for a lack of a better word, in her expression, posture and tone of voice that made Nazuna worry.

“What's up, Michiru,” she replied with a greeting of her own, sending her an easy smile.

As she came closer, her worry grew. Michiru's eyes were red, which, sadly, wasn't that unusual an occurrence in recent months, but they didn't just look sleep deprived, but also like she cried, and recently too.

Additionally, her hair and tail were dishevelled, which she didn't notice when they met briefly earlier in the morning. It was a bit jarring, seeing as Michiru enjoyed taking care of both.

Her heart clenched at the realization that she somehow _hadn't_ realized that her best friend was hurting, too self-absorbed to notice, focusing on finally meeting her parents face to face again.

It hurt more because it reminded her of her… less than nice personality when they were first reunited in the slums, and the less said about how she acted later, the better ( _she still felt guilty about it_ ).

“Oi, Nazuna! Are you spacing out?” Michiru waved her hand in front of her face a few times, taking her out of her internal reverie.

Nazuna let out a small, sheepish giggle. “Sorry about that. Anyway, what do you want to do?” She shot her an inquisitive look while asking, a slight smile still sitting on her face, regardless of her previous, rather depressing thoughts.

Michiru scratched the back of her head before answering. “I just wanna talk, you know, catch up a bit.”

Nazuna felt like that wasn't really it, but after a moment of consideration decided not to push. “Well, I know a place nearby that has some decent food, so we can chat there. That sound ok?”

She seemed to consider her words for a bit before her eyes widened as a metaphorical light bulb flashed over her head. “You're a genius Nazuna!” She exclaimed with a smile as she began to walk down the street. “... Why are you just standing there?”

A small laugh of her own escaped her lips as she shook her head. “You're going in the wrong direction you dummy.” She made a beckoning motion as Michiru's face flushed slightly from embarrassment alongside a sheepish grin as she turned back and followed Nazuna.

“Oh, and why state the obvious?” She proclaimed haughtily.

In response, Michiru gave her a small pout that then changed into a somewhat distraught grimace. “It's just that I didn't have time to have breakfast, you know. I was still sleeping when the mayor called and then I spent the last two hours-” she cut herself off mid-sentence, lips pressing into a thin line. “That's not important. What is important, is food!” She exclaimed energetically, pumping one fist into the air.

But to Nazuna, the whole action and words felt… _fake_. From the corner of her vision, she gave her best friend a concerned look, trying to figure out what it was that was bothering her.

Some treacherous part of her mind told her that this was none of her business, that she was being a hypocrite and that she should leave it be, that she was doing this for nothing else than to feel good about herself.

She was familiar with it by now, the whispers, the guilt, the doubts that plague her before every show and concert, every charity.

By now, she learned to ignore it, her attempts to get it to shut up ultimately futile because, honestly? It was right.

She was, still is, selfish, always only thinking of how anything can benefit her and her career, only bothering to think about others after that, no matter how hard she tried to change that part of her.

Nazuna almost relented and withdrew, but didn't, because, what would have happened if _Michiru_ had done that, let herself be stopped by the poisonous thoughts - words, at the time - and left her alone? Would she have ever realized what Borris was, the way Alan effortlessly manipulated her into doing what he wanted her to? Would she have caused an even worse outbreak than she already did, spurred by self-delusions of grandeur, of complete and utter thoughtlessness towards the beastman of Animacity and the consequences of her actions?

She didn't want to know the answers, they hurt and she was too scared of some to think about them.

And, well, despite the parts that it was right about, it got one thing wrong.

This _is_ her business.

After all, she owed it to Michiru, didn't she? To not be a selfish, uncaring bitch and reach out and help her in whatever way she could, her own treacherous feelings on the matter be damned.

Of course, she _wasn't_ Michiru and wouldn't do the emotional equivalent of beating her head against a wall until the problem was solved, despite how that approach seems to have worked out for her in the past. No, she would approach this with a more delicate touch, and that meant getting Michiru to _relax_.

Such were Nazuna's thoughts as the entrance to the cozy little restaurant came into view. It was a nice place, western-styled in both furniture and menu. It was also never crowded to the point when you couldn't get your own privacy while also generally having enough customers to have a quaint buzz going.

As they entered through the door, Michiru looked around the place with wide, amazed eyes. “How did I never notice this place? It's amazing!” She beamed as Nazuna led her to a table in the corner of the room, right next to the window with a half-decent view of the street.

“Pick whatever you want, it's my treat,” she offered.

Michiru's nose scrunched up as she looked at her. “But-”

“I insist,” Nazuna interrupted her, looking right back at her.

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Michiru relented. “Fine,” she muttered as she picked up one of the menus laid out on the table and began browsing through it.

For her part, she didn't bother. She already knew what she was going to order anyway and, actually, could she say “The usual” at this point? She definitely came by often enough for the waiter to have it memorized at this point.

As it turned out, he _did_ have her order of waffles and a milkshake memorized. Michiru, for her part, chose the gargantuan combination of an English breakfast, American pancakes and a baguette, plus a mug of black coffee.

The last one made Nazuna look at Michiru like she spontaneously grew a second head, because, _black coffee_? _No thanks_.

While they waited for the waiter to deliver their food, she expected Michiru to strike up a conversation. She just looked out of the window with a listless gaze instead, a distinctly un-Michiru like thing to do.

After a while, the silence started to get awkward, and Nazuna decided to think about potential conversation topics. It didn't take long as her mind immediately settled on one, singular fact. “It was you who organized those visas, right? Not just the mayor.”

Michiru looked at her with a small startle, unexpectedly taken out of her reverie as she regarded Nazuna for one short second. “Yeah, that was me, even if it was Barbara who really pulled through on the meetings. Everything else though, all me!” She finished proudly, her face morphing into an equally proud expression.

“Thank you,” Nazuna said, more quietly than intended,” despite keeping in contact with my family, it will be good to meet them face to face again, after two years.” She was sure they'd come, despite their work keeping them busy and stopping them from coming to one of her concerts ( _right?_ ). “Getting to meet yours again will be nice too.”

At some point, she looked down at the floor between her feet, and when she looked back up and at Michiru again, her breath hitched.

Michiru looked like she was on the verge of tears, the corners of her mouth shaking. “They - I, I mean-” She stuttered but stopped when Nazuna reached over the table to take one of her paws into both of her hands.

“You don't have to talk about it if you're not ready to.” She looked straight into her eyes as she spoke, a calming smile on her face and a gentle tone of voice.

Michiru sniffed once. “... Thanks,” she said as she tried to withdraw into herself, stopped by the Nazuna's grip on her paw.

After a while, she let go and reached over to one of the paper napkins and handed it over to Michiru, who took it and used it to wipe her eyes.

Nazuna felt bad that she elicited a response like this in Michiru, feeling even worse when she heard the small, triumphant _Aha!_ inside her mind. She made sure that her expression didn't change though, still gently smiling at Michiru.

Well, at least now she knew what was bothering her best friend.

They spent the rest of the wait in silence, Michiru seemingly lost in her own thought and Nazuna afraid to say something potentially hurtful again. It wasn't really all that awkward or uncomfortable though, especially when Michiru gave her a brief, grateful smile.

Once the waiter brought their food, Nazuna slowly ate her waffles, sampling the taste as usual. She really should compliment the chef.

Michiru, in the meanwhile, didn't so much as eat as inhale the food, leisurely switching between bacon, pancakes, baguette and sips of the _vile liquid_. Nazuna found herself wondering if there was some sort of pocket dimension in the tanuki girl's stomach, as she always did when the two of them ate together ( _the memories felt like they were an entire lifetime away_ ).

As they ate, Nazuna eventually asked a question. “You have your own apartment now, right?”

Michiru only grunted in response, seeing as she was busy stuffing her face silly full of pancakes.

“Then, pray tell, why haven't you shown me yet?” She said coyly, taking a sip of her milkshake through a straw after she did so.

Credit to Michiru, she only looked like she almost choked when she heard the unexpected question. After she swallowed her food, she laughed a bit awkwardly. “Ah, you see, it's really not that much to see. I haven't even gotten it furnished yet, so really, it's just a bed, table, oven, kitchen sink, one half-empty wardrobe and my office.”

Nazuna hummed for a bit before speaking. “Well then, guess we're going furniture shopping.” She stood up, reaching for her wallet in her purse. “And what was that about a half-empty wardrobe?”

Michiru gulped.


End file.
